For years, the U.S. Ex-Im Bank has been criticized from both the right and the left as a purveyor of “corporate welfare.” Now it's coming under attack for helping foreign firms compete against U.S. companies.

Vacancies are an all-too-common sight across swaths of Chicago. They're yet another aspect of a cycle of poverty, violence and dysfunction that drains city and suburban budgets and tarnishes Chicago's image.

If only, says Jeff Finucane of Delta Demolition. He speaks wistfully of the days before the real estate crash. Flattening homes for the city “used to be fill-in work,” he says. “Now, it's all we have going.”